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The Government welcomes the continued multi-stakeholder management of the internet

– The Internet will continue to be developed in collaboration between civil society, business and governments, says Mehmet Kaplan, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, and responsible for IT-Policy.

The UN organization International Telecommunications Union (ITU) today completed its Plenipotinary Conference in Busan, South Korea. Countries around the world have agreed not to extend its influence over the global Internet. Internet can therefore continue to be developed via multi-stakeholder collaboration. In a comment Mehmet Kaplan says:

– Civil society and the business community has been very important to make the Internet what it is today, and there were risks that they would be excluded from future decisions. It is a relief that is not the case and that the Internet will continue to be developed in collaboration between governments, civil society and business.

Internet is currently governed in a model of multi-stakeholder collaboration between civil society, business and governments. The model is being challenged by countries that would rather see an intergovernmental solution within the UN, often accompanied by technical requirements that would limit a free and open Internet.

– There is no doubt that every country has a significant interest in how the global Internet is handled. It takes place today by countries participating as members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) advisory committee Government Advisory Committee (GAC), Mehmet Kaplan ends.

Background
ICANN is a nonprofit organization responsible for the coordination and maintenance, as well as methodology for, databases of unique identifiers related to namespaces used on the Internet, and for the safe and stable operation of internet. Countries participate by being members on the advisory committee GAC.

ITU develops standards and rules for the international telecommunications network and is one of the world’s oldest intergovernmental organizations (founded in 1865). ITU is chartered by having the member countries meeting every four years to update the Union’s charter documents and defined the work items for the coming four years.

ITU Plenipotinary Conference in 2014, in five points:– No proposal has been accepted that changes the situation where Sweden and many other countries are not bound by the ITR (International Telecommunications Regulations) that was developed during WCIT (World Conference on International Telecommunications) in Dubai in 2012. There will not be any new WCIT-conference in the coming years, and the next WCIT conference with the review of existing ITR’s will be held no earlier than about 2020. A decision on this must for this be taken at the Plenipotinary Conference 2018.

– ITU has taken steps toward a more open organization. Council Working Group on Internet issues is complemented by a meeting where all stakeholders are welcome to attend. Documents will be made available without password protection for larger meetings and conferences, but not for working groups.

– ITU has set targets for global participation in the information society through a new resolution that focuses on development issues, Connect 2020. This will provide input to the work to update the UN Millennium Goals and the review of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) during 2015.

– ITU member states have agreed not to move forward ITU positions on issues of Internet Governance. Proposals to give the organization a role regarding allocation of IP addresses and management of domain names, and to work with Internet Exchange Points, or change the rules regarding routing of traffic did not find any support.

– ITU member states have agreed not to give the ITU a greater role in matters of security related to the communication networks. ITU has still a role in the development of standards for communications, as well as helping countries to achieve better ability to protect their own IT-security. ITU will though not work with the security policy or operational tasks.